Counseling Services: Trauma/EMDR

“My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who and what I am. To take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my talents, my flaws and to stop this incessant worrying that I can’t be loved as I am.”

-Anaïs Nin-

Sometimes in life we experience stressful or disturbing events that can leave us with the impact of psychological trauma. We may be unable to get past the painful event and feel held back in our lives. Present triggers can cause past traumatic experiences to continually resurface and prevent us from being able to fully heal. We can feel disconnected, shut down, and distrustful of others. Our sense of security is threatened and the world becomes an unsafe place. We feel logically we should be able to overcome something, and we can even make sense of it. Yet the emotional part of our brain hardwires connections about that traumatic incident, preventing us from moving forward in a healthy way. Our bodies also retain a “memory” of the distressing experience. With trauma recovery, it can be helpful to learn how to be present with emotions that are overwhelming, and establish a sense of being in charge of that experience.

EMDR is an evidence-based practice treatment approach to trauma, developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. I provide EMDR therapy to address a range of traumatic experiences. If we decide EMDR would be appropriate and beneficial to you, I am happy to share more information and resources about this type of therapy.